Adding Interactivity to your elearning videos

We’ve made a number if interesting videos for assorted clients over the years, but the longer they are, the more difficult it is to keep a learner’s attention.

Interactive videos are more engaging — and more likely to stick with learners — than videos that they watch passively. Depending on your authoring tool, you may already be able to add such interactions as:

Attention and knowledge checks

The most basic use of interactive video is a knowledge check. Pausing to ask viewers to answer one or more questions on the material before continuing can ensure that your learner is paying attention and has absorbed the content. This can be done in-video, or as multiple shorter videos split up over several slides if you are programming this in Storyline.

Divide the video into chapters

Breaking an especially long video into chapters or sections, with the possibility of jumping to relevant sections or going back to review sections, can greatly improve the learner experience. Anytime you give your learner more control over their elearning is a bonus to the interactivity of the content. This also gives your learner natural points at which they can step away from a longer video, which helps with retention of the topic just covered.

Add interactive graphics or annotations

Adding clickable items to your video is another way to boost interaction. These can be links or hotspots that route your learner to more information – which can take the form of a content overlay, a supplemental document download, or an external website resource. Any way you can link external content to your video is another opportunity for your learner to engage with the material.

These are just a few of the possible ways you can use elearning videos while also maintaining the engagement of standard elearning.